Black and reformed: Apartheid, liberation and the Calvinist tradition

by Allan Boesak

These essays represent a forceful, relentless engagement with the political, social, economic, and theological pillars upon which South African apartheid rested. In the renewed struggles against global apartheid, Boesak's writings, in their theological grounding and with their social and political challenge, come across as alive, relevant, and powerful as they were in the struggle against South African apartheid, offering valuable insights and lessons for ongoing justice struggles today.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Race, Faith, Spirituality

Paperback

First published September 1, 1984

About the author

Allan Aubrey Boesak is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric and politician and anti-apartheid activist.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little more than midway through this short but intense examination of reconciliation in the Bible and in contemporary South Africa and American Christian churches, I had an epiphany. Boesak writes that for true reconciliation to take place, wealthy empowered people must step into the place of poor, marginalized people. Sure, I am not a millionaire, but compared to most people alive today, I am very wealthy and powerful by virtue of being a middle-class American. That means I have to go lower and deeper, and not only me, but all of us middle class Americans. Call to conversion, anyone?

[Katie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really great. It was a bit difficult to understand at times, but I did get a lot from it. Here are some of the quotes and ideas that stood out to me the most.


Reconciliation is radical because it is biblical.

Reconciliation is often understood today as assimilation, appeasement, a passive peace, a unity without cost, and maintaining power with only cosmetic changes.

Reconciliation requires more than leaving places of power for periodic visits to communities of oppressed people.

Reconciliation is often assumed to mean white institutions adding or including persons of color but never transforming the central identity from white and male to a truly inclusive human identity.

Sympathy is not solidarity. Crying “shame“ is not solidarity. Complaining behind the safety of four walls in the locked door is not solidarity

Solidarity means understanding that what is at stake is not just the lives or deaths of those who are crucified day by day. At stake is the dying of our soul.

As time went on colonization was racialized and so was the image of Jesus. A white European colonial image of Jesus was constructed, owned, and manipulated by empires for domination

Reconciliation can not be shallow
(Self-justification= blaming the system, your job, your needs)
Self-justification always stands in the way of true reconciliation: it mocks the wronged, nullifies repentance, and trivializes forgiveness.

[Ian Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays display a theology just as deeply rooted in the reformed tradition as it is in the lives and experiences of those victimized by apartheid. Beautifully written and inspirational, Boesak shows that the struggle for the total liberation of humanity is a most appropriate application of scripture, as well as the thought of the reformers and of the reformed confessions.

I found this quote from chapter 7 to be a decent summary of his conclusion:

"The liberation the church proclaims is total. It is liberation from sin in all its manifestations of alienation from God and neighbor. It is liberation from economic exploitation, dehumanization, and oppression. It is liberation from meaninglessness and self-alienation, from poverty and suffering. It is liberation to ward a meaningful human existence seeking freedom and human fulfillment. It is liberation for the service of the living God, so that God's people will no longer be subjected to the tyranny of false gods."

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly eye-opening, it was great to get a perspective on racial issues and colonization from outside the United States. The Church is called to justice and anything less is an incomplete understanding of the Gospel. I really liked the stories of Zacchaeus and Rizpah. Specifically, Zacchaeus' story is a great demonstration of how reparations and repentance is important to correct injustice and create reconciliation. One cannot move forward if both parties are still unequal. You cannot have reconciliation if you continue to oppress and exploit your brother.

Another great point that was made was about multicultural and diverse churches. Is your Church only diverse in demographics and still expects members to assimilate to white culture? Are there people of color on leadership boards? Are there women?

[Barry Kyrkund · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating. The story of reconciliation is told from what took place in South Africa and what is taking place in America. It uses Bible stories that I have read but missed the meaning of to show what one individual can accomplish. Finally, it outlines the four things necessary, according to the Bible, to accomplish reconciliation.
This is one of those rare books that I will go back to many times and reread.
I believe most people do not understand that the United States is a wealthy, powerful, prosperous country due to the free, forced labor of Black people. Black people, through slavery, have physically made this country what it is today at the expense of Black people to which we owe a debt that can only be paid by reconciliation.
Do yourself a favor and read this book slowly to savor the richness it provides.

[Annah · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Christian social justice should look like, as opposed to sanitized, nervous, or too-strategic political or religious "reconciliation." I docked a star because I think these men are good enough writers to have tightened up some of the chapters to be far more concise; the over-explaining dulled the punch. The two authors switch off writing alternate chapters, which I found to be a neat practice of the preaching. I'm a fan.

[Brittany]

Recommendation from I’m still here

[Jordan J. Andlovec · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be forever grateful to Allan Boesak for developing a theology of liberation that is evangelically-tinged and more accessible to those who tend to be more conservative theologically. I not only learned a great deal here, but also received language to describe how the social and political contexts we live in demand we meet the moment with the word of the Lord Jesus.

If you want to understand how the gospel overturned the system of apartheid in South Africa, this book is what you want.

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought many of the puzzle pieces I had in my head together and started forming a much clearer picture of racism and reconciliation.

[Brenda Seefeldt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just not another book about our sin problem of systemic racism. You will read the Bible in a different way, because this is a Jesus issue.

[Mu-tien Chiou]

The following paragraphs is roughly adopted from Amazon review


Boesak called Dutch Calvinists, French Huguenots, Scottish Presbyterians and Swiss missionaries “the most ardent disseminators of the Calvinist racial heresy,” he is not offering us a hyperbole, for “the God of the Reformed tradition was the God of slavery, fear, persecution, and death.” (p.83)

"Racism is an inevitable fruit of the Reformed tradition." (p.86) "If apartheid is Christian, take your Christianity and go to Hell."(p.131)
"The whole human race is united by a sacred bond of fellowship." (p.90) "Ethnicity is inseparable from racism, however subtle it may be."(p.116)

Universal Blacks =Israel in Egyptian bondage, subject to slavery ever since their first contact with White Christians, so "let my people go."

But his "Let my people go" is in fact "let my people in." He demands that whites actively open up their communal, familial, and national borders "to redistribute the wealth of the country"(p.119) and for access to White women (p.133).

The historic sociological doctrines of European Christendom marks the old heroes of the faith as Blasphemers and Heretics while the true faith is declared a distinctly Unitarian/ Marxist/ African Christianity!

Whether or not the white Pigs were comfortable with letting this very pushy and self-righteous black wolf into their homes wouldn't matter because the Wolf had gained the political wind to blow down the Pigs' poorly made ideological house of liberty, equality, and charity.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book by two scholars and practitioners of reconciliation. One is white from US and the other black from South Africa. They challenge the dominant positions of pitiful pietism and Christian quietism. True reconciliation is radical and changes societal structures. My favorite section was on prophets and particularly Jeremiah Wright

[Erin Grasse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will break your heart in the most wonderful way possible.

[Alastair Singh-Mccollum · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and thought provoking challenge to the Church to consider it's colonial, imperial heritage and how the assumptions, often unquestioned, which are fostered by such a heritage cause a breakdown in being the reconciled, justice focussed, Christ-centred community to which are called.